MIRANDA 35 GHz SAR based change detection

Abstract

Up to now, the high effort involved with airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems has led to the effect that SAR image processing is mostly restricted to single images of a scene. Recent developments like the MIRANDA 35 and its matching flight platform allow for frequent revisits of the same scene at very high repeatability. MIRANDA 35 has been designed as a lightweight and compact SAR sensor for altitudes of up to 1 km while providing a resolution of 15 cm. In combination with a highly flexible ultralight aircraft we have recently obtained 28 measurements of a scene within 2 hours of flight time at very high repeatability. Two sets of flight courses, each with 7 flyovers of the reference scene and 7 of a modified change scene, are investigated here using statistical change detection methods like Informational Difference and Universal Image Quality Index